MORE BAD JU JU BETWEEN BUSH AND CHENEY? OR JUST A SMOKESCREEN?

According to INSIGHT, a news magazine that is a relatively dependable purveyor of right-wing spin and Regime propaganda, Bush has taken Cheney out of the loop on national security matters. Sounds very dubious to me. According to the unsigned report, Cheney is no longer the Regime's point man on security policy.

"Over the last two months Mr. Cheney has been granted decreasing access to the Oval Office, the sources said on the condition of anonymity. The two men still meet, but the close staff work between the president and vice president has ended. 'Cheney's influence has waned not only because of bad chemistry, but because the White House no longer formulates policy,' another source said. 'There's nothing to input into. Cheney is smart and knowledgeable, but he as well as Bush are ducking all the time to avoid the bullets.'

Like many other sources already have, INSIGHT reports that the indictment and resignation of Irving Libby (aka- "Scooter") was the final straw in the deterioration of relations between Bush and Cheney. Bush is freaking out because he knows (someone must have told him) that any trial of Libby, Cheney's long-time chief of staff, who also worked directly for Bush, would open a closet of skeletons jeopardizing the Regime from every conceivable direction.

The sources said Bush blames Cheney and Rumsfeld and the bloodthirsty extremist neocons they brought into the government for the disastrous war in Iraq. Bush has been bitching to his senior aides that the Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole WHIG cabal provided him with "misleading assessments on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as well as the capabilities of the regime of Saddam Hussein."

This part sounds more like some Bush staffers starting to prepare his defense for his eventual War Crimes trial, than anything to do with reality. The part about Cheney being ousted from his role as the administration's point man in the area of national securityand being out of the loop about Iraq makes me think they have some new foul machinations up their sleeve and they're trying to protect Cheney for the shit-storm to follow.

Bush, they say, "is not expected to replace Mr. Cheney unless the vice president follows the fate of his former chief of staff. The sources also said Mr. Rumsfeld is expected to remain in his post until U.S. troops are withdrawn from Iraq."

And meanwhile, there are reports everywhere that Babsy, the vicious old family battle-ax is steaming mad at Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and everyone else who was supposed to take care of her impaired child but who led him astray and into the unenviable position he's in now.